LA Hotel Boycott

I just got info in my inbox the other day about travelling to LA and the hotels to avoid due to their anti-union practices. Moreso, too many hotel workers live at or below the poverty level, and LA, I'd be willing to bet, is no different.

LA hotels are still under boycott. We need your help.
To Our Dedicated Supporters:

For numerous years, your commitment to Los Angeles area hotel workers and their struggle to rise out of poverty has been instrumental in achieving several organizing victories and a higher standard for union hotel workers. Workers at the Sheraton Gateway recently ratified their first contract, a historic step forward marking the the first hotel on Century Boulevard near LAX to have a union contract. Many of you have marched in picket lines, attended worker meetings, pledged not to use the services of boycotted hotels, and have even been arrested in acts of civil disobedience. The workers are encouraged by your support and are grateful for the solidarity you have shown with their struggle.

Despite tremendous support from the Los Angeles community, three area hotels remain in the middle of very serious labor disputes where employers have refused to honor their workers' pleas for justice. The workers of the Hilton LAX, the Glendale Hilton, and the Wilshire Plaza hotels have called for boycotts of their own hotels, asking customers not to eat, meet, or sleep at their hotels until the disputes have been settled and workers are treated with dignity.

Hotels to Avoid
The Hilton Los Angeles Airport
The worker-called boycott here has resulted in over $4 million of lost business to date and is the site of regular picket lines. Most recently, the Hilton and eight other LAX-area hotels have been served with a class-action lawsuit alleging violations of the Los Angeles County "Hotel Service Charge Reform Ordinance".

HiltonLAXAdvisory.com

The Glendale Hilton
After over 2 years of struggle with regular pickets and a national boycott, this hotel been acquired by Apollo Real Estate Investment Fund and will be managed by Aimbridge Hospitality LP. Even with the change in ownership there is no end in sight to the labor dispute. Most recently, workers and clergy gathered outside the Nestle Global Headquarters calling on Nestle as a regular Glendale Hilton customer to stop using the hotel.

GlendaleHiltonAdvisory.com

The Wilshire Plaza Hotel Los Angeles
This hotel has cut workers' wages from $10-14 an hour to as little as $7.55/hr. Workers have also had their health insurance benefits discontinued and sick days taken away. In response, the workers have launched a boycott, and they picket the hotel regularly. Over 80% of the workers have pledged to vote for a strike. A strike could mean extended picket lines, demonstrations, increased pressure and anxiety for guests entering the hotel, and most importantly an absence of trained and skilled staff.

BoycottWilshirePlaza.info

How You Can Help
If you have any events scheduled at a boycotted hotel or know of any groups that plan on using a boycotted hotel, then you have a unique opportunity to stand in solidarity with workers in the Los Angeles area by moving the event to another location. Please contact Jessica Austin or Kristin Winn of UNITE HERE Local 11 at (213) 250-8731, or email jaustin@unitehere.org with questions or requests for assistance.

In solidarity,

Tom Walsh, Secretary-Treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 11

I'd also like to note, that I waited tables for years and I did so, at one time, in a hotel. I wish every American could spend a summer as a server. The experience is amazing, humbling and a really intimate look at efficiency (how many steps to that table, with what, when and how many times...always going through your head). I believe that working my way through college as a waitress has helped to make me into the person I am today. Well, that and the other 5 years of waiting tables, and being a mom.